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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
Briquette Update for Rumangabo and Goma
Hello, this is Robert. As you have seen, the security situation in the North and South Kivu has been very challenging as of late. Despite this, our dedicated teams have been pushing forward with the briquette project. Balemba, the Project Manager has made several harrowing trips between Goma and Rumangabo to meet with briquette teams. He also spun off one of the original Rumangabo briquette pilot teams this week. Our promise was to pay the workers for three months while we tested the briquette concept, and if it turned out to be viable (which it has), each team would then be given a press to start their own business.
A full training class last week at the GAD office in Goma
GAD (Groupe d’Action Pour Le Droit or Group Action For Rights), our partner in Goma, has continued to train community organizations and has kept the manufacturing of new presses in full-swing. For those of you new to the project, we are spreading the fuel briquette technology through local community organizations, with the mind to help them start their own briquette businesses, and in turn, create a new briquette market niche.
New presses about to go out to organizations that have completed the briquette training course
Each team of six people that goes through a training course is given a new press with which they will start a new briquetting business. You contributions are making this happen and before long, we hope to see the demand for illegal charcoal start to diminish.
Anatole Bandu, Co-Director of GAD (at right), meeting with one of the press manufacturers in Goma
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14 Responses to “Briquette Update for Rumangabo and Goma”
I remember to have addressed a mail to you a few months ago concerning the realization of briquettes in France. This new fuel will make it possible to safeguard the forest and to avoid the coal traffic. I am very happy to see this réalization.
Thanks for the update, Robert. I’m pleased to learn that the briquette operation is going ahead and having some successes.
s.
Thanks for visiting the new Briquette project page, Jean-Claude and Sheryl. We appreciate your support! We have a long way to go, but I feel confident that we’ll be able to have a significant impact. As you saw in yesterday’s post by Innocent, everyone and their brother is involved in illegal charcoal and they must be made aware that a legal alternative (briquettes) exist.
Hey Robert:
Nice to find you here on the new website.
And again, thanks for the mail!
Pam in Shell Beach, CA
Yes, Robert. Good to be back in touch…
[...] of dirty countries like the United States and Canada is impacting Africa. I was going to cover the charcoal project in Virunga National Park but then war erupted delaying the project but that will be the topic for a [...]
congratulations, good work.
Hi Robert:
I haven’t seen anything on the blog from you recently and am wondering how things are going.
Also, I’m wondering about opportunities for more funding of the briquette program. I can’t remember if I have suggested this to you already, but what about microfinancing??? I think the briquette presses could be a good business to be featured on Kiva.org. Of course you would need a MFI for support and Kiva only takes MFIs that have been operating for 2 years.
Still, I think it could be a good offering for Kiva. Especially when I see UNSUSTAINABLE businesses featured in Uganda such as charcoal sales!!! I’ve written to Kiva about this but have received no response.
Anyway, something to check out maybe?
Hi Pam,
Nice to hear from you. The briquette project is still moving forward, but the conflict has set us back. As you might guess, our briquette operation at Rumangabo has come to a standstill because CNDP rebels control the entire area. We have no way of knowing if our presses are still safe or if they have been chopped up for fuel. Only time will tell. GAD continues to produce briquettes, as do several of the organizations that they trained in Goma. We haven’t confirmed it yet, but word has it that one organization is producing over 1000 briquettes per day using a single press, which would be fantastic! Balemba has had to focus on administering the ranger refugee camp so our own activities on the ground in Goma have slowed somewhat. I continue to work the grant side of things for the project and am also engaged in stove design discussions in hopes of finding the perfect briquette stove that is easy and inexpensive to produce and highly efficient. The Legacy Foudation’s stoves group has been a big help in this respect. Thanks for your suggestion about Kiva. Yes, micro-financing is definitely on our radar, although we haven’t formally pursued it yet. Once we get basic production capabilities fully established in Goma, we’ll be pursuing this more actively. On another note, Virginia is back in Congo for a visit and is currently in Bukavu, where she started several briquetting groups. The hospital is now using briquettes exclusively which is yet another testament to the viability of briquettes. Thanks again for checking in!
Just a quick thanks for your nice note before your departure and for the updates on the project.
I wish.. the briquettes. use in all forest of congo, for the future of peoples, gorillas and others animals.. regards for Virginia.
what a clever and unique concept
Teach a man to fish…,
Now they just need a stable gov in Congo and some one to bring them up to proud place in their lives - perhaps the original countries of disruption might help Belgium France Germany ?
Hey Robert—-I was wondering about you, you emailed me last April about my walk you read about in Seattle Times article….I’m the guy from Seattle area that walked from Seattle to Portland to raise $ for MGVP…..I remember you getting involved, being from Colorado and focusing on the illegal charcoal trade….assuming this is the same guy….I’d like to reconnect with you, especially in relation to a new project I am working on….have you crossed paths with Andre Bauma by chance? he is the primary caretaker for the orphans Ndakasi, Ndeze and Mupendo in Goma Sanctuary
[...] Spreading the word to shore up support is an important element of ensuring action. There is a much better chance that governments react if people expect it, and that agencies and organisations on the ground have the means to operate if people know why it counts. So when I was approached last week by a journalist intending to write a piece for one of the most respected German Sunday newspapers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, with more than a million readers, concerning the topics of deforestation, the future of carbon backflows from vegetation and soils into the atmosphere, and forest protection, I seized the opportunity to not just talk about our own scientific research. I also pointed her to the Virguna website and a story that appeared on the main blog the day after the hippo story, on 3 Feb 2009. Some persons were encountered carrying wood bundles out of the park. The story made the point well that it is paramount, if the park is to be saved from such encroachment, that the local population has access to alternative, local sources of energy. So I also pointed the journalist to the briquette programme. [...]